Monday, November 19, 2007

Driving Miss Daisy

This Saturday, my sister-in-law, my mom, my aunt and I all piled in my minivan for a Girls Day Out. Being that we are a rather wild bunch, our outing consisted of lunch at P.F. Changs and a lengthy perusal of Hobby Lobby. (That's a big deal here, because the nearest HL store is an hour away.) There was much eating, much shopping, and much laughter. On the way home, I was thinking while everyone was chatting, and realized that I had become the Driver.

When did this happen? Shouldn't there be a ceremony or something? I remember as a child that on female-type shopping expeditions, my Grandma would drive. After awhile, my aunt took over, and my mom would fill in occasionally. It was a sort of unspoken passing of the torch in our family. The younger generations would step up to the wheel, so to speak, and the older generations would migrate to the backseat to chatter and cluck. (I mean that in a nice way.)

In so many ways, I don't feel old enough to be the Driver. I'm just a kid. But then I think about it - I've been married for 9 years, I'm a mother, I'm officially Dr. Allen - I guess I can handle it. And it was nice to drive and let everyone else take it easy.

This time of year I've heard people talk about the ritual of turkey carving, and handing it down through the generations. What's a passing-of-the-torch tradition in your family?

2 comments:

Turkey traditions: it's all scrubbed when one gets married! Dad always carved the turkey right at the table (about the only thing he ever contributed to the meal, except significantly reducing the leftovers that had to be put away), and he was always a "handy man" around the house and farm. Then I got married. To say that my hubby is quite opposite Dad is qualified for understatement of the year: not handy (at ALL--I even hang pictures and change lightbulbs in our house! Good thing I Love him so!), and absolutely no clue how to carve a turkey. You can imagine our first Thanksgiving 2 years ago: I had slaved in the kitchen all day, his girls were "required" to each pick a favorite dish and prepare it (hoping to take some of the burden off of me, a plan that backfired miserably), and then we all sat down and I looked expectantly at Hubs. I had gotten the electric carving knife out for him, and the blank stare he gave me had me running for "FoodNetwork.com" for turkey carving instructions. Looking back on it, it was hysterical, but at the time I was pretty concerned that the green bean casserole was gonna get cold before the how-to video downloaded. Amazingly, dinner somehow always gets pulled off, and the strange things that aren't quite "a hit" at least make for good banter for years to come!

Most definitely driving and navigation duties. I am not sure when the other females in my family decided that I knew my way any more than they did, but it has happened. Probably the organization of family activities has fallen to me, as well. That is why we rarely have organized events!! Great post!!